stormy snow shooting

[holon]

hi there,

i am trying to shoot skiing during snow storms in the trees. Footage is coming out quite grey and lacks contrast- looks flat. Other storm hvx 200 footage i have seen in similar light has much better highlights with pure whites and not the murky grays we are getting.

camera was set as follows:

720/24pn
white balance at atw
polarizing filter

any ideas on how to get more contrast and the snow whiter?

 

[ulisses]

I don't have snow experience, but I should check Knee, Pedestal and Gamma curve.

Ulisses

 

[Lez]

With so much white about why are you shooting Auto white balance... the light should still be 5200k but I would try white balancing off the snow...

Also probably you'll need to blow the whites out a bit... you can always bring them back in colour correction..

I've shot 1000's of hours of skiing and unfortunately when the light is flat it tends turn out like crap...

Skiing footage is probably one of the hardest environments to work in...

The best stuff tends to be with 16mm or 35mm film... video has a very limited white curve... although cameras today are much better than in the early years...

Cheers

LeZ

 

[DOSMedia]

Hey there,
I am actually a producer in the snowboard and ski industry.
I just got my HVX on saturday, but my old camera is still HD, and I have experience in the snow.
Even if it is sunny outside, I overexpose my shots. When shooting with snow always overexpose a little bit, you can always color correct it, if you think its too bright.
I wish i could tell you the perfect settings for it right now, but i have not worked in low light yet with the hvx, so i have not made the settings for it yet.
As of right now just overexpose, dont worry about getting the best details out of the snow.
Also in low light situations, its best for your skiers to always wear bright clothes. Just get the best colors like...

I know its not low light or snowing or anything, but you can tell its a little overexposed.

Ok i actually went through a couple short videos i threw together this one and grabbed some screen shots from when i was shooting in a blizzard in reno...
Just look at how they are overexposed and the colors come out exceptional, but the snow is almost a flat white. You dont have to overexpose this much, but Its a good strong HD look...

I hope this helped a little by showing the pictures of an overexposed shots.

Let me know if you have any other questions filming in the snow. Shooting in the snow is definitely one of the trickiest things to get good at.

Bentley

 

[Al MacLeod]

snow exposure

snow exposure

Snow shooting wont require anything exotic...just understand what you are exposing for. A"normal" scene might be an interview or city street where most things in frame are well within the exposure range that gives good renditions of color and contrast. In the snow however the object that you want exposed correctly (skiers) represent 5 or 10 percent of the frame...the rest (snow) is many f stops brighter. So it boils down to what element of the frame do you expose for. You might try exposing for the snow on wide shots and exposing for the skier on tight shots. If you compromise and try to get both it may not work.

 

[HVXSHROPSHIRE]

Actually try using a 8x ND filter for the snow, if you mess with your color and and over expose a little bit you acutally give very high contrast. I have seen pictures of shots taken with the hvx with a add on filter (not the camera's standard nd filter) and it looks really great with snow. you get the bright whites but you still get teh cool contrast and see every little nook and cranny in the snow as well. buy one off ebay. try a 4x and a 8x...